Postal Entertainment Bar

On my previous post, Oh the Stories That Could Be Told…., I included a picture of my Postal Entertainment Bar (shown above, or check out the post in its entirety here  https://theiveycourt.wordpress.com/2012/07/31/oh-the-stories-that-could-be-told/). Well, I’m happy to report that it has found a nice, new home. You know, it’s kind of funny. On one hand I hate to see my works leave the shop. All the time and effort spent building each piece can create a connection that makes it tough to see them leave. Yet, on the other hand its a pretty cool feeling knowing that someone, or another family, will be “adopting” something  that I created.

So now, what to build now that I’ve cleared up a little space in the shop. Well, sometimes my inspiration doesn’t start with an image of the end result in my head, but rather it usually sparks from what materials I have on hand. Pictured to the right is another piece that I salvaged from the Wannville Post Office. I confess that when I originally stored it I didn’t give it much hope for use. At best I thought with it being split in two that I might could use it for face frames.

So I did a quick look over and removed any nails from the wood face (I left the small tacks on the edge, which were used for attaching snuff advertisements, as they would not affect cleaning up the wood). I ripped the most efficient part of the wood on the table saw and then planed both sides (see photo to the left). I was surprised by the fact that the boards were dead straight and had no twist to them. With such straight boards, I decided to use them to build what I call a farm-house type table top, including traditional bread board ends. The size of the boards meant that the top would be narrow, which I was ok with as I thought it would be great for another Postal Entertainment Bar.

Below are pics of the finished product. The first photo shows the installed bread board ends. One question I thought about was how the unfinished edges would look when glued up with the freshly cut edges of the end boards. After applying a coat of finish, I was happy to see that the Tung Oil really unified all of the edges to a similar color.

And here is the finished product. It measures roughly 44″ long, 34″ high, and is about 13″ deep. The assembly of the table is traditional mortise and tenon joinery, and is finished in a traditional Tung Oil finish with a lacquer top coat for durability. I like the idea of using it as an entertainment bar, but it could also be functional as a small serving table,or a hallway display table. Of course, this piece is available for “adoption” to a good home. Shoot me an email, hunt22j@hotmail.com, for a price quote on this custom piece of furniture.

Oh the stories that could be told…..

“It’s as pretty as chocolate pie, right before momma spreads the meringue on it.”

– The Honorable John H Graham

I have to give a big shout out to an old friend of mine, Cecil Holmes. Cecil and I are old college buddies from our days at Snead State. And just as it too often happens, we had kind of gone our separate ways. That is until I started seeing his work on Facebook, and his blog site, http://www.cecilsphotos.com. Talk about some cool pics, he has really created a unique style of shooting pictures. So several weeks ago I was fortunate enough to have him come up (he is truly a busy man on the weekends) to take some much-needed shots of several of my items.

The picture above is of the Postal End Table that is photographed in the home of The Honorable John Graham. I loved how the light reflects off the top as if it were a mirror. Yet, the top is 120 year old wood reclaimed from the Wannville Post Office, finished with traditional Tung oil and a hand rubbed lacquer top coat.

Below is a new piece that I’ve added to the Postal Collection. I think it makes the perfect addition as a wet bar/ beverage stand. The top, again, comes from the Wannville Post Office. The stand was built from rough cut poplar wood that I collect from the farm, which I believe came from a dismantled shed.

And finally, here is the coffee table that currently resides in my living room. It was a storm casualty from 3 years ago and actually laid in our yard until January 2011 when I milled it with my chainsaw mill. Just as most of my pieces, I am always amazed with how something that is so rough, so dingy, and can seem so lifeless laid out in the yard, can be transformed into something so full of warmth and so full of vibrant color.

I had to include the shot below. The picture is of the Wann family standing in front of their home, which was still standing on the farm when I purchased it some 12 years ago. Looking back, I am really glad that I was able to salvage what I could out of the house before I dismantled it due to unrepairable decay. For instance, the grey stiles that I use for the Postal End Tables and the Postal Entertainment Bar were originally part of the wainscoting in the house. And the tops were originally the shelves of the Wannville Post Office. So what better way to preserve the past than to be able to bring it into your home as a piece of furniture. I think it can best be stated as follows:

“The patina of each piece is alive with the history of the past, of the people who operated the Wannville Post Office, the folk who came there to mail letters to far off kin and others who came there hoping to hear from a loved one gone from sight, but not heart.  It’s a real “if this table could talk” feeling to me–I can’t help but think of the lives its touched, of the goods sold across the old store counters, of the stripped coconut candy bars it held and the plugs of tobacco cut on it.  All of the emotions, hopes, dreams and wishes it has witnessed seem embodied in it as it becomes part of our home, our family.  I hope that we will have it for many years yet unrealized and, one day, it will trundle off to a new home, with a new family, bearing a little bit of our history mixed in with all the archive it now holds.” …Another great statement from my friend, Honorable John Graham.

Thanks again to Cecil Holmes for the photos. Will Parks for the use of your lovely, exotic office. And to John Graham for the use of your home, as well as all the literary inspiration.

The Ivey Court presents the Wine Bottle Candelabra

This is probably one of my favorite times of the year. The weather is starting to turn off nice, with cool nights and warm days. The garden is planted (well, for the most part) and everything is nice and green. But the best part about this time of the year is that it’s finally time to start grilling again.

We live in a pretty unique and small house. So small in fact that we do not have a dining room, which is really not a big deal for us but it does kind of limit you on how many guest you can have over for supper. You can only sit so many people at a 4 person bar table, right? So some time last year around January, I decided to build an outside dining/ entertainment area. Nothing fancy, just a simple little “shed” that we could use on nice nights to grill and have friends over. I was able to salvage all of the lumber and posts needed from trees that were felled during the great Gravity Wave of 2009. And I did all of the sawing with my new chainsaw mill which I have featured in an earlier blog.

“The Party Temple”, as my wife calls it, has been an awesome addition to our home stead. We’ve hosted everything from birthday party’s, to Junior Progress meetings for my wife, a Scotch club meeting for myself, and a number of what I like to call our informal Supper Club gatherings. And for the most part it has lived up to expectations. We’ve kept everything about it simple, a string of Christmas lights, a Weber grill, folding tables, 2 TVs, and a number of gas lanterns are all the amenities we need. Yes, 2 TV’s are a necessity, especially if half of your friends are Auburn fans while the rest of us are Alabama fans and both games are on at the same time.

One thing I felt was missing was a centerpiece for the table, or a chandelier of some type. Again, it needed to be simple and preferably with candles as I felt it would add a certain ambience with the flame flickering off of the silver tin at night. So armed with an idea, an abundance of wine bottles, and some wood from the shop here is result.

The vessels for the candles were old wine/ liquor bottles that were destined for the garbage. I simply cut them in half and placed them in the holes. It is important to leave the corks in place. If not you will end up with candle splatter on the table once the wax melts down the neck of the bottle (we learned this the hard way). The wood was some leftover red cedar that I had at the shop and the hangar was a piece of ground wire that I took off of a salvaged power pole.

For the candles, I use a cheap, long federal style that you can buy from most retail stores (Target, Wal-mart, etc). I think they normally come 8 to a box. They last a pretty long time as the wax will melt to the bottom of the bottle and continue to encase the wick. In fact, the candles shown were left over from last year and they have already been used 6-7 times this year.

Each candelabra made at The Ivey Court is made one at a time and to the customers specifications. I’ve made them as small as for 4 vessels and as large as the one shown at my house. Of course, thats not to say they can not be made bigger. Please feel free to contact me at hunt22j@hotmail.com and I will be happy to work up an estimate based on the size and type of wood you would like.

Thanks for viewing!

Lumber Stretcher

I’ve often wondered how many times I’ve heard the expression lumber stretcher. You know the scenario. Here is how it often goes for me. Lets say I measure something in the shop, or at the work site, and I need a piece of wood that’s 45″ long. Well, this is when Murphy’s Law comes in to play as it is normally late in the day and everything I find measures 44 1/4″ or less. Frustration begins to set in as you go through the entire woodpile with no luck. Then someone chimes in from the peanut gallery “huh, huh, you gotcha lumber stretcher with you, huh, huh?”. And which I normally respond “No, jack%^&, I don’t have no lumber stretcher”. (At this point I’d like to apologize to all of my former English teachers. I generally try not to use phrases like “don’t have no”, but sometimes you have to relate to the audience your speaking to get your point across.”)

You see, the lumber stretcher is not real but rather a figment of the imagination amongst woodworkers/ carpenters. Its something we all wish existed as it would definitely help out, but in reality we know the trip to the lumber store for one piece of %^$& wood is inevitable.

I thought of the lumber stretcher the other day while I was working at a clients house. They had called me about changing out some doors due to the old ones having been cut off to accommodate carpet, which worked fine until they decided to install hardwood flooring. You guessed it, now there was an 1 1/2″ gap between the doors and floor. Upon closer investigation (after the new doors were purchased) I found the doors had not been cut off but rather installed at that height, which now meant we needed to remove the trim and door jambs and lower the entire door assembly. One problem: there was wallpaper on the walls. So lowering the jamb and trim would have left a gap at the top with no wallpaper. Here is where the frustration was beginning to set in and I wanted to say ” no jack&^%, I don’t have no lumber stretcher”. Breathe, 1, 2, 3,…breathe. But wait, maybe we could in fact stretch the doors.

Off to the shop with two doors. I found 2 pieces of solid wood (one poplar and one red oak) and milled them both down to 1 7/16″ x 1″. Most off the shelf doors are 1 3/8″ to 1 7/16″ thick in case you’re wondering how I came up with that number.

I then sanded both the bottom of the door and the wood to feather the edges (in order to give the glue the best chance to hold sufficiently). Once sanded, I marked and cut two sets of biscuit slots, 3 on the front and 3 on the back. Add a little glue, spread it evenly on both mating  surfaces and then assemble.

Here is where the tricky part came in to play. Most doors have a 5 degree bevel cut on the handle side to help ensure that the door does not hit the jamb when being opened and closed. So I had to come up with a way to carry that bevel down to the new wood. I clamped two pieces of wood (one on top and one on bottom), flush with the edges and the bottoms of the door. Then using a flush cutting router bit, I was able to trim a perfect edge with an identical bevel as the door edges.

Once assembled there was a seam between the door and the wood. This was due to the door having a very small chamfer edge. Not a problem as I filled it with a 2 part wood filling putting, leaving it a little proud, and then sanded with a random orbital sander once it was dry. The picture to the left illustrates the repair with only one coat of primer. One thing to keep in mind is to follow the wood grain of the door with the new repair. Also, some heavy brush stokes will help to add some of the graining which will blend the repair in with the door.

That’s all there was to it. Two hours in the shop vs. multiple hours at the clients house. Plus they do not have to look into replacing their wallpaper. Definitely something to keep in mind should you ever find yourself needing a lumber stretcher for a door.

Creativity wins again

I ‘ve been working on a project for the last week or so that has been a real challenge. Not so much as the work is tough and strenuous, but more of a mental challenge. You see, most of the time my projects are pretty uniform. My goal is for all lines to be parallel, intersecting at 90 degree angles, with every object being equally spaced, creating a nice, harmonious environment. In other words, things have to be perfect. Which is nice, but to be honest it can get a little boring sometimes. Now this job on, the other hand, it’s a totally different story.

For starters, I had to come to terms with my level. Usually it is my trusty sidekick, helping to illustrate how walls and/or door casings are straight and square with each other. But for this job my level came to be used as nothing more than a glorified straight line drawing apparatus. Nothing was level. Nothing was square. And whats more, they were not even close. So when mounting, say a shelf, I had to use the “its close enough” method of meeting in the middle of somewhat level and looking right.

Something else I have enjoyed about this job has been that it has allowed me to get creative with materials. Thus far, the majority of the items I have installed were salvaged. Some of these are the sink/ countertop that were originally used in the house. Or the can lights that I pulled from a bathroom demo on my last job. And whenever I needed post, I would use old flower pots for a mold to cast my concrete (simply cut the pot off once the concrete dries and it leaves it in the shape of the pot).

And probably the biggest of all is the wood. Most of the wood that I used for the shelves or framing came from some red oak (see my earlier post on Some New Wood) that was a casualty of storm damage. I would simply come up in my head with what I might need and then saw it with my chainsaw mill. After that it was just a matter of using my framing saw to cut it down to whatever size I needed and using my planer to clean up the boards (if so desired).

So all in all I am very pleased with this project and how it has evolved. Still got a little to do, but hope get the finished pics up soon.

Some new wood

I had a little “free” time on Monday afternoon so I decided to start on some new wood that was offered to me by a friend. Originally he had told me about a pecan tree that he had in his backyard, which sadly was already too rotten to salvage. But he did have this nice red oak that was casualty of storm damage. It measured 24″ at the base, very straight, and had been cut up into 2) 8′ sections and 2) 5′ sections. This tree would have been a good tree to carry to a local band saw operation, but it was located in an area that was pretty tough to get to. In fact it took me several trips to carry my saws and equipment up to it.

Here is one of the two shorter pieces, which I ended up slabbing them both into 1 1/2 and 2″ slabs. Some of the slabs I am using for a project at my friend’s house (more on that later) but the majority of them went to the shop to be air-dried and possibly used for future furniture projects. The cant hook leaning against the log was my grandfathers. When I asked my dad how old he thought it was he replied “I’m not sure, but that hand carved handle has been in it for as long as I can remember”. That means the tool is probably at least 70 years old, if not older! Pretty cool to be able to use something that not only my dad has used but also my grandfather.

On a totally different subject, it looks like Eli may have a “new” school desk in the future. Found this one in the woods sitting on a stump. I’m thinking a coat of red paint and it will fit right in with his room. Now for the wood for the seat and desk top, I may have to get a little creative for that.